This image has graced c-hammer.com several times now. This most recent edition is the final and is the one I submitted to the a few fantasy books and magazines.
It started as a very large sketch, and from that I scanned it in and created a painting in Corel Painter. For several weeks I ignored the image, deciding that it was complete. However if you look back at the previous image you will clearly see changes. Most were in an effort to increase the contrast, allow image readability and create a more dynamic image without fundamentally changing the drawing or pose. All of these changes were done in Adobe Photoshop, as was the addition of the background texture.